The Mate
by xxxxParvati-Patilxxxx
Summary: Tori has been running most of her life and hates men. How is she going to react when her life is turned upside down by not one but four men?
1. Chapter 1

The Mate

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters apart from Tori no matter how much I wished I owned The Lost Boys.

It was the energy that she liked the most, the constant thrum of excitement that Santa Carla brought to her heart. The loud infectious beat of the music could be heard all the way down the boardwalk. The bright neon lights that lined it from the rides and shops that brought life to the boardwalk. She noticed the warm comforting breeze that remained even though night had fallen leaving only an endless black sky.

As Victoria, Tori, made her way through the bustling crowd she wondered about how long she could remain as she was. She had spent the last two years moving from place to place, never settling, and never getting too comfortable. She had turned eighteen two weeks ago. No one would be looking for her anymore, she was just another runaway. She had to admit that Santa Carla seemed like the perfect place for her, it was after all filled with runaways just like her.

Maybe she could finally settle down, actually have somewhere to call home for the first time in years. Smiling at the thought she decided to head to a fast food place for a burger. Maybe she could even find a job. It was hard living off of the money she got doing the odd painting and drawing of people she met. Walking passed a narrow alley she noticed a man with strikingly blue hair leading a young woman down it turning every few seconds to kiss her. They were laughing and though she could tell from their shabby clothes that they weren't exactly well off, they did seem happy. Smiling she continued on.

As she neared the so called restaurant she noticed a little boy loitering around outside by himself. She knew he couldn't have been more than eight and she remembered all too well being left on her own when she was a little girl while her mum went off to find her dealer. Maybe that was the reason she felt a connection to the boy, a need to help him. She walked towards the small boy and knelt in front of him, smiling.

"Hi, I'm Victoria, but you can call me Tori. What's your name?" She asked concerned

The boy looked at her smiling back nervously and replied. "I'm Laddie"

"So how old are you Laddie?"

"I'll be eight soon!" He told her, smiling widely.

"Really that's great! Are you alone too?" she asked sounding enthusiastic. She did, however notice the sad look that crept into Laddie's eyes when she asked.

"Yeah, Star left and told me to stay out of trouble."

Tori felt for the boy and decided to spend some more time with him. She didn't want anything to happen to him, plus his dirty face and sweet smile made her heart ache. Smiling to put him at ease she offered to buy him a burger since she was getting one already. This was an offer which he readily accepted since Star apparently hadn't thought to at least leave him some money to get food with.

As she led him into the dimly lit building she saw that there were quite a lot of tiny booths free for them to sit at while they ate and talked. Sending Laddie to sit at a table she walked towards the dull red counter to order their food. After receiving the greasy packages from the blond disinterested teen behind the counter she went to sit across from the sweet little boy that she had found. With a huge smile he took the burger and bit into it. She took this as a chance to try and find out more about him.

By the time they had finished their food she had found out quite a lot about Laddie, growing to be very fond of him at the same time. During their conversation Laddie had opened up to her quite a bit and she had learned that he lived with four men and a woman who turned out to be Star, who he had previously mentioned. He went on to explain the strange family dynamic that they had, telling her of the four men David, Dwayne, Paul and Marko who he shyly admitted he looked up to and were almost like father figures to him. She found it strange that he should say they were like his dads rather than his brothers being that from what she had heard they were only in their late teens themselves.

Tori was also surprised that while Laddie spent a lot of time with Star because she was sort of David's girlfriend and infact the only girl around, he didn't see her as a parental figure at all. Not even as a sister really since he wasn't close with her and didn't even particularly like her. He had mentioned that she talked down to him a lot and didn't like him hanging around the guys. She understood how this could cause a rift between the two considering how much Laddie seemed to love the guys he lived with, plus no kid likes being talked down to. She certainly didn't when she was his age.

She remembered well all of the adults that had talked to her like she was stupid after he mother had passed away. She had only been seven years old at the time and very attached to her mum. They had always been close. One of her fondest memories of her mother was of bedtime when her mum would lay at the side of her and read her fairytales until they fell asleep. She remembered the night before her mother died they had been in the middle of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

It was the next day that Tori learned life's hardest lesson. That life wasn't fair and the only person you could depend on was yourself. From that day forward she had been passed from foster home to foster home, never being able to settle before being moved again. It was when she turned eleven that she first ran away. She had been caught of course, but it hadn't stopped her from trying again and again. Apparently the third time really was the charm because since running away for the third and final time, the day after her sixteenth birthday no less, she had not been caught. Now at eighteen she knew she no longer had to worry about it and for that she was glad. Life had been hard for her on the streets, that much was true. One of the main things she had learned was not to trust men.

At sixteen she had spent much of her time with a couple of men looking for someone to take care of her, to love her. By a couple she really did mean just the two, but those two men was all it took for her to lose faith in the male gender altogether. They hadn't even cared about her never mind loved her. The first had hit her constantly and after she had left him the second had told her exactly how worthless he thought she was every chance he got. Then there was the sex. She hated sex, the thought of being with a man terrified her now and it was because of those men. She had only ever been with those two and they took every chance they could to hurt her in the bedroom, in fact they loved it. The last guy had even raped her on a few separate occasions before she found the courage to leave. After that she had sworn off men for good and though lonely at times she was safe and she was happy for the most part.

By now Laddie was shifting in his seat and she could tell he was ready to leave. She got up to put their wrappers in the trash then with a smile took Laddie's hand asking him where she was taking him.

"I always meet the guys at their bikes on the other side of the boardwalk opposite Max's video store. They should be there soon so you won't have to wait with me, I'll be fine. I can't wait to tell them all about you!" Laddie finished almost jumping with excitement.

Laddie continued to talk excitedly as they walked down the boardwalk. Tori could tell he was happy and was glad of it. It seemed like such a change from the little boy she had seen earlier that night looking so sad and lost. As they neared the end of the boardwalk she saw what she thought to be four sleek and rather impressive bikes parked just opposite the video store. She found it strange that while the owners weren't there, people still seemed to give the bikes a wide berth and wondered just how intimidating the owners must have been considering that the bikes didn't seem to bed chained up or anything, which would make them rather easy to steal. Something which she thought probably happened a lot in Santa Carla considering some of the people she had seen around.

"Are you sure you are going to be ok?" She asked, a little worried about leaving him alone.

"Oh yeah I'll be fine, don't worry. Like I said the guys will be here soon and so will Star. They won't be happy with her, they get mad when she dumps me. Will I see you again?"

Tori assured him that he would be seeing her again and they arranged to meet at the same time infront of the same burger place. She then hugged him and then made her way back across the boardwalk towards the small shabby looking room that she was managing to rent for almost nothing. It had four walls and a bed and that was all Tori had ever needed.


	2. Chapter 2

The Mate

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters apart from Tori no matter how much I wish I owned The Lost Boys.

Dwayne's POV

Finally we had managed to get Laddie to agree to go to sleep. I was just glad to be able to get some peace and quiet at last. He had been talking non-stop about this woman that he had met earlier that night. One thing was for sure, she had certainly made an impression on him. In a way I was glad he had met her. He needed a woman around and he certainly never found what he needed in Star. She was too selfish to care about anyone other than herself.

Star. She had been the biggest mistake that David had ever made and now all four of us had to deal with the consequences. She never should have been given the blood in the first place. She wasn't the one. David had known that, hell we had all known that. The only reason we ended up in this situation is because David was acting out. He wanted someone of his own. He's spoilt really and decided he was not going to share and so he went out and found Star. In all his stupidity he didn't stop to think that she wasn't meant for him-for any of us.

You see vampires do in fact have a sort of family dynamic, but it's an instinctual one and that's what makes it different. Just because you are given a vampire's blood doesn't mean you instinctually think of them as family. David is a good example of that. Max turned him but they have absolutely no familial connection. Not one of brothers, not one of a father and son, nothing. Sure he stayed in the same area as Max for protection but he isn't part of the family. Instead David went on to find me, then Paul, then Marko.

We knew right away that we had the bond of brothers. Much like when Laddie had wandered into the cave and got his hands on the bottle. When night fell and we found him sleeping we knew we had to protect him like fathers would. The thing about us sharing the brother bond though is that it meant we would share the same mate, much like we share everything else. David decided to rebel I guess, because he went out and found Star and gave her his blood despite the rest of us warning him that it was a mistake.

Well David had to deal with the mess he made now and it really does serve him right. Although I do sometimes feel bad for him, the poor guy had no idea what he was getting himself into with Star. I don't think that I have ever met a more self-centred, annoying woman in my life. She spends over an hour just getting ready before she even lets us go out at night. I'm sorry but in Santa Carla no one cares how you look! She was constantly nagging too. Always asking David for this and that and complaining about what she was. Honestly the amount of times I've been close to murdering her myself is ridiculous -the only thing that stops me is the thought that she's already killing herself by refusing to feed. Not that she will actually die from starvation, David will probably end her before it comes to that and my only comfort is that it can't be too much longer, or at least I hope it isn't. I can't say for sure because none of us have ever been stupid enough to refuse to feed.

The thing that really annoyed me about Star though is the way she acted towards Laddie. As far as we were concerned Laddie was pack while Star was not, yet she constantly tried to keep Laddie from spending time with us. That bothered all of us but probably me more because I was the closest with Laddie. She was always keeping Laddie away from us as though he needed to be protected from us. David tried to talk to her about it and apparently she didn't want him around such bad influences. A concept I found very amusing as it was easy to tell that she didn't even like Laddie, he was just an inconvenience to her, but one that she could use to continuously annoy us with.

Well hopefully it wouldn't be an issue tomorrow night because Laddie had mentioned that he was meeting that woman again. I think he called her Tori. To be honest I was very curious about this woman that Laddie had taken an immediate shine to, but though I wanted to meet her I knew I shouldn't seek her out as that would only upset Laddie. He would bring her to us when he felt comfortable enough for her to meet us and until then we would all have to be patient. I had noticed my brothers had also shown interest in this woman while Laddie was talking.

As then sun began to rise Dwayne knew it was time to rest but rather than following his brothers to the hanging area, he made his way to his own room deep within the suken hotel. He needed his space tonight.


End file.
